Lead Generation: 3 questions every marketer should ask themselves about incentive

Does your marketing team have experience to fall back on, or have you found yourself in team conversations like this one …

Marketer 1: “I have this great idea! We’ll build a landing page and put a lead generation form on it!”

Marketer 2: “That’s genius! Everyone’s doing it! When visitors land on the page, they will enter their information and VOILA! Leads generated!”

Marketer 3: “That’s great, but what are you going to gate with the form? Why would someone want to give you their information? What motivation do they have?”

Is your team following best practices because they are popular, or are they approaching your marketing initiatives with consideration for every possible variable and objective?

Now don’t get me wrong. We all do our best to create lead gen pages that provide value and build interest in what we’re selling, but our best intentions are not the problem.

It’s all too often that we simply forget to thoroughly examine one key element for success – the incentive we’re offering.

So, in today’s MarketingSherpa Blog post, I wanted to examine three questions every marketer should ask themselves about lead gen form incentives that you can use to tip the balance to your advantage.

Do our incentives provide tangible value to our visitors?

Incentives are something appealing that we can offer the visitor in return for their information.

They come in many forms and differing levels of value. Popular options visible in the digital landscape these days are discounts, educational content, product add-ons and free or expedited delivery.

Which should you choose? Which will provide value to your prospects?

There are two important things to consider when thinking about incentives:

Cost

Relevance

Will visitors to this landing page find the incentive relevant? Will it meet their needs or prove valuable to them? Does the incentive offer a high potential for return on the investment? Is it something you can even afford to offer?

Ultimately, the right incentive for your offer depends on the product and business model, the motivation of visitors, and how the incentive builds momentum through the buyer’s funnel.

When choosing, it’s important to find an incentive that provides added value by complementing your product or service and matching your visitors’ wants.

If you can offer a low-cost incentive that provides high value and ROI, that option is likely a good fit for you.

Is contact with a real person a valuable incentive?

Another approach to lead gen offers you can use is contact with a real person.

This can be contact with an expert on a widget or a representative who can help prospects navigate an extensive product line.

If you have a complex product offering or if there are many competing options that have muddied your market, this might be a good option for you. However, there are a few important things to consider here.

Do visitors need help with your product offering? Will speaking with a person help them make a better buying decision? Can contact with a representative expedite the buying process?

Be careful though, if your prospects don’t perceive a personal contact as valuable, you could scare some away. But, you’re almost assured that those who do make it into the funnel will be of a higher quality.

Can we offer direct access to something our prospects want?

Offering exclusive access as a lead gen incentive is another option to consider.

Gated information resources can prove valuable to prospects, but the caveat here is it really comes down to the motivation of the visitor.

So, when considering gated access to information as a strategy, here are a few questions to think about in terms of incentive:

Are you offering access to something visitors are looking for? Is there value to be found in the resource they will access? How motivated are visitors at this point? Is there a way to provide a sample or preview to build interest?

When pondering if offering access is a good choice for your next landing page lead form, make sure your team digs into the questions above and more.

It all depends on whether you can offer access to something visitors find valuable enough to convince them to share their most intimate details. If you have a high demand resource or product page, go ahead and try this approach. But, be careful. If your visitors are not properly motivated at this point or don’t find enough value in what you’re guarding, they may end up bouncing into your competitors’ arms instead.

With the above form incentive options, there is no silver bullet. One method may work in one situation and not in another. It is our job as marketers and lead generators to find the right option to suit our needs. If you want, you can even combine the above suggestions during your own testing and optimization.

Experiment.

Try them out.

The more you experiment with incentives, the greater your understanding will be of your prospects and their motivations.

A wonderful post, Eric! What would you say is the best way to test if contact with a real person is a valuable incentive? Simply by trying it out once and seeing the results? Or are there other ways you recommend before sending the campaign through? Thanks!

I really enjoyed your prospective. I have many old school clients that don’t get it. I think your article will give me a better approach to guide them. I think the three questions are a good start for getting a businessman to focus on what he wants even if he is not sure what he wants. Thanks…. this is a very good approach!